Root Force (Kurt)

25 years in tech. Tennessee stump grinder. Built Tree Service Software after running the job myself.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

For 25 years, I worked in web development, building sites, writing code, and solving complex problems for big companies and small ones alike.

Then I got stumped. Literally.

After dealing with problem stumps on my own land here in Tennessee, I realized how few reliable, efficient options were out there. So I started Root Force.

I just bought a remote-controlled Carlton 6016 and am getting started grinding stumps for a living. Will I love it or hate it? Can't say for sure, but I'm excited as hell. It's not just the stump grinding - I love building businesses. This is my fourth. All successful so far.

Now I'm focused on growing Root Force and sharing the journey with like-minded folks. Speaking of which, hat tip to Tyler Mumford, The Stump Guy — @StumpGuyTy. A great success that I hope to learn from.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

@FrontierBDesign 😂

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

It is the Wild West out there in peptide land, and you have to be careful.

As some of you know, I fractured my elbow and have some soft tissue damage in my arm.

I believe peptides can help with the healing process, but sourcing them is not easy.

My first attempt was ordering BPC-157/TB-500 from a company online. I ended up getting my money back because there was no confirmable COA. I wasn’t comfortable taking that leap.

Tried again through a virtual doc.

The difference in what showed up was pretty radical.

Overnight shipping. Refrigerated package. Alcohol wipes. Easy Touch needles. Labeled vials with prescription info, filled by a compounding pharmacy in Texas.

Could I still be getting duped? I suppose anything is possible. All medicine requires a bit of a leap of faith.

But I’m a lot more willing to take this leap than I was before.

Confidence didn't come cheap though. $417 for 30mg.

Now we’ll see if it helps.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

@FrontierBDesign I agree. I hope you're meeting went well!

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

@esrtweet @nikitabier @brave Interesting. Absolutely a Brave user.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

@OneLegchris I think you'll be ok. Just have to embrace these tools so you can stay competitive. Always appreciate your advice too Chris. Thank you.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

Moving my personal WordPress sites to static site generators so Codex can work on them directly. WP will be around a long time, but I expect it's market share has already begun to shrink.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

@OneLegchris Thanks Chris. All my redirects should be in order. Using Codex Cli's /goal tool is pretty remarkable. It knew, without me specifically prompting - that it was a legit concern. That said, the site I recently migrated had pretty terrible SEO so not much to risk.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

Oh yeah! Super nice that you have your sister-in-law to help. As best as I can tell, the gray market is absolutely loaded with shams. That said, what I paid was ridiculous. It shouldn't be that much, but of course my goal was 100% confidence that what I wanted was what I got.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

Lot's of truth here from Chris. Many things to consider when migrating from one platform to another. If your current site has good SEO, you have to be careful to not mess that up. Chris explains...

[Chris - Local SEO @OneLegchris]

@rootforcegrind Here's a video too

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

@DaveShapi I'm seeing a lot of these type of comments. I'm not experiencing any issues with the Pro subscription. Everything is normal and running as expected. That said, we're probably due for at least some minor upgrades.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

This is timely. If you don't have a website for your grinding business, this is a good route. Plus, I've gotten three leads in past 24 hours - the best one came via my website. Get a website.

[Jilles Soeters @Jilles]

You can literally build and host a website for free today.

If you're already paying for a ChatGPT subscription, you have access to a world-class software engineer, called Codex.

Combine that with Cloudflare, and you have superpowers.

No coding or terminal required.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

@HSucier I appreciate that. The CRM goes well. I'm a little reluctant to keep posting about it, but probably should. Some new features landing soon.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

@austinginder Similar story with Codex and AWS S3. Saved me $1200 a year. The $200 pro plan is the best money I've ever spent. My only fear is now I'm dependent. I hate to think how high they could jack up prices and still have me shelling out.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

@HSucier Always happy to chat about web development!

Are you asking about the estimator built into my CRM? I use it all the time.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

Codex Cli and 11ty work together really well (https://t.co/hgLKRCECee). You should have some design sense though if using Codex Cli. It often drops the ball on the front-end, but the underlying code is surprisingly good - especially if you have dev experience. I assume Claude and 11ty would work together well too and you may get more attractive user interfaces - though I suspect the code is not as strong. That doesn't matter much on brochure type sites.

If you're coming at it from a solo perspective and minimal to no dev experience, I like what @Well_Done_Adams has done using Loveable (https://t.co/2VVhSUZXzt).

For now, my clients (who work in teams) will still use WP.

There are probably many other great options.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

@Owen0to1 That's tough stuff. Good luck Owen.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

@lightningstumps LSA is different than Google's Ad words. You don't really build campaigns around key words.

https://t.co/CqpWCtUqoY

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

My arm is jacked up, but my son is game to help.

Just quadrupled my ad spend.

Pretty pumped to see what we can do.

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

@OneLegchris That's me! My arm is sucking because it's exhausted from holding all that cash! ;)

[Root Force (Kurt) @rootforcegrind]

I like Google's Local Service Ads. Not cheap. About $30 per lead, but it works. 2 good leads just today. I used to do well with FB too - which can be considerably cheaper, but my last campaign was so-so. Probably my fault. People loved the vid, but they were not great leads. I will give it a go again soon though.